page_title: Common minke whale
section_title: Size
hierarchical_section_title: Common minke whale / Description / Size
caption_attribution_description: English: Whale near Tadoussac, Canada Deutsch: Wal im St. Lorenz Strom bei Tadoussac, Kanada Français&#160;: Baleine à proximité de Tadoussac, Canada
context_page_description: The common minke whale or northern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales.
  It is the smallest species of the rorquals and the second smallest species of baleen whale. Although first ignored by whalers due to its small size and low oil yield, it began to be exploited by various countries beginning in the early 20th century. As other species declined larger numbers of common minke whales were caught, largely for their meat. It is now one of the primary targets of the whaling industry. There is a dwarf form in the Southern Hemisphere.
  This species is known in the fossil record from the Pliocene epoch to the Quaternary period.
context_section_description: The common minke whale is the smallest of the rorquals, and one of the smallest baleen whales (second smallest only to the Pygmy right whale). In the North Atlantic, Norwegian whaling vessels in 1940 allegedly caught individuals of up to 10.7 m (35 ft) in length, but they were likely only measured visually in comparison to objects of known dimensions aboard the ships themselves – the longest caught in subsequent years were typically only up to 9.4–10.05 m (30.8–33.0 ft) in length. In the North Pacific, Soviet vessels operating out of the Kuril Islands claimed to have caught two males of 12.2 (40 ft) and 12 m (39 ft) and a female of 10.7 m (35 ft) – the first two were landed in 1951, the third in 1960. These likely represent undersized sei whales, part of the massive misreporting of whaling data by the Soviet Union in the North Pacific and elsewhere.
  The longest measured by Icelandic scientists were an 8.7 m (29 ft) male and a 9 m (30 ft) female, while the longest caught by the Japanese in the western North Pacific were 8.5 m (28 ft) males and a 9.1 m (30 ft) female – the latter caught off eastern Hokkaido in 1977. For the dwarf form, the longest reported are a 7.62 m (25.0 ft) male caught in May 1973 and a 7.77 (25.5 ft) female caught in May 1970, both taken off South Africa.
  Males caught in the western North Pacific and weighed whole on a truck scale averaged between 2.85 and 4.23 metric tons (3.14 and 4.66 short tons) (range: 0.86 to 6.36 metric tons, 0.95 to 7.01 short tons), while females averaged between 1.93 and 3.63 metric tons (2.13 and 4.00 short tons) (range: 0.84 to 8.35 metric tons, 0.93 to 9.20 short tons).
  At sexual maturity, males and females in the North Atlantic average between 6.16–6.75 m (20.2–22.1 ft) and 6.03–7.15 m (19.8–23.5 ft), while in the North Pacific they average between 6.3–6.8 m (21–22 ft) and 7.1–7.3 m (23–24 ft). At physical maturity, males and females in the North Atlantic average between 7.9–8.17 m (25.9–26.8 ft) and 8.42–8.5 m (27.6–27.9 ft), while in the North Pacific they are slightly smaller, averaging only 7.5 and 8 m (25 and 26 ft), respectively. At birth, they are estimated to be 2.5–2.8 m (8.2–9.2 ft) in length and weigh 150–300 kg (330–660 lb). They are thought to be weaned at about 4.57 m (15.0 ft) in length. For the dwarf form, they are thought to reach sexual maturity at around 6.2 m (20 ft) for females and 6 m (20 ft) for males and are estimated to be about 2 m (6.6 ft) at birth.
caption: Minke whale's size relative to a Zodiac off Tadoussac
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